Detroit Red Wings waive Jan Mursak

DETROIT – When Jan Mursak heard the news the Wings were going place him on waivers he wasn’t surprised. He just wished he was given more opportunity to play.

“I had one game,” Mursak said Friday. “It just seems like I wasn’t the right fit on to this team. I wasn’t the kind of player to play on the fourth line, or something like that.”

Mursak has until noon Saturday to clear waivers. If he’s unclaimed, the Wings can assign him to Grand Rapids.

“I enjoyed my time here, I learned a lot,” Mursak said. “It was awesome to be in the locker room full of super stars, but now I have to move on. I’ll continue my career on any other team or I’ll be down in Grand Rapids playing. This is my last year on the contract anyways, so we’ll see where it goes from here.”

Not helping Mursak was a string of injuries he had over the last two seasons.

He broke his ankle during the preseason last year and suffered a collar bone injury in the season opener this year.

Mursak played just 46 games with the Wings, scoring two goals and assisting on two others.

“I didn’t have any luck, but that’s the part of hockey,” said Mursak, who was drafted by the Wings in the sixth round in 2006. “There’s nothing you can do. I just have to stay positive and hopefully I’ll get more luck in the future.”

Detroit’s depth at forward also didn’t help.

“I haven’t been fitting in very well when I had the chance to play,” Mursak said. “So it’s time to move on.”

On Thursday, Mursak had no shots on goal and one giveaway in just under nine minutes of ice time.

“I know I turned the puck over yesterday a couple of times, but I was just trying to make a play,” Mursak said. “A lot of times even good players turn the puck over 3-4 times and then one time it goes through and they score a goal. I can’t afford doing that on the fourth line with limited ice-time.”

Desperate timesThe Wings are 0-3-2 in their last five games. During that stretch they’ve scored just one power play goal and have given up two-goal leads three times.

“First and foremost we can’t look at the schedule and get too far ahead of us,” said goalie Jimmy Howard, who will start Saturday at home against the Nashville Predators.

“The schedule is going to be tougher (second half of season), the traveling is going to be tougher,” defenseman Niklas Kronwall said. “We have to make sure we take care of our home ice. We haven’t done that so far.”

Ins and outsDefenseman Kyle Quincey won’t play Saturday, but isn’t expected to miss too much time with an injured left ankle.

“It’s day to day right now, but I’m hoping for the best,” Quincey said. “Pretty much just get it good enough, tape it up and get in the skate and go from there. The pain level is pretty high right now. Once that goes down it’s good to go.”

Forward Johan Franzen (hip flexor) is out Saturday and probably Sunday. He hopes to return Wednesday.